Have you seen any Marvel Movies? It's impossible for Hollywood to actually make a movie that has a pre-existing universe, deep story, and interesting characters. Dubbed Anime is very similar in that regard. It's like they don't even watch the original to get a sense of the story or how the characters are portrayed.

I'm just glad Cowboy Beebop wont come to fruition and I'm not even going to talk about The Last Airbender.

I'm just glad Cowboy Beebop wont come to fruition and I'm not even going to talk about The Last Airbender.

Well Bebop was supposed to be a little like the Constantine - starring Kanu Reeves, who would be a great Spike IMHO, he's made for such movies. I was really waiting for this move to be fair. he did great in Constantine, and this movie showed that you can do good movie based on comic book IMHO.

As for Dragon Ball/Last airbender.. well I hope DB creators die in hell.. Last Airbender wasn't terrible.. but was bad..

The way I see it, things like the Marvel movies being bad isn't that they have a pre-existing backstory and such, so much as the problem is when the original story began. The X-Men movies in particular had an odd feeling because they were modernized while trying to keep the same feel of the political environment that was around decades ago, and it just didn't stick. When you combine that with trying to kick it up a notch to make it more hip or whatever, it results in a disaster, ala the Dragon Ball live action movie.

Akira was written in a different era. Rather than stay true to source material, my bet is that it'll be "updated" to be more "accessible" to a modern audience (IE: Angsty Hipsters) while any regard for alienating the original audience will be foregone in favor of a perceived higher profit margin.

Now ask yourselves this. Is Americanized Akira the greater evil here, or the sequel, "Akira 2, ReVoLuTiOn" that will be spawned and completely fabricated if the "original" does well in theaters?

Originally Posted by Stoobs

It's like they don't even watch the original to get a sense of the story or how the characters are portrayed.

That is...so true. Kyatto Ninden Teyande was dubbed during the Ninja Turtles era, and the VAs just randomly dubbed in lines depending on mouth movements and what they could see going on at the time. The only episode that had a script was the season finale (which was the last episode they dubbed, not suprisingly). The result was this ONE episode referencing things that hadn't happened, or had happened differently, and it was just...confusing. Not that the show was revolutionary, but it's a specific example where practically no regard to the original was given when it was dubbed.

OT: It's producers worrying more about sales than actual artistic merit. It's disappointing without a doubt.

People are trying to make money now? What has the world come to???

Originally Posted by Kufik

Im tired of America always has to try and make something THEIRS.

Go away and stop meddleing in everything.

Then tell people to stop selling America the rights to everything.

Also, this isn't a big deal at all. Japanese animation is too niche to appeal to mass audiences, so changes are expected to get more people buying tickets. If you are so offended by this, take it up with the creator(s) of your cherished show that sold out.

The original movie really influenced me big time. I still love it. There was a re-dub version where for some reason they hired new American actors to do the voices and that alone killed it for me. Just not the same. I can't help but think that this is just going to disappoint me worse.

But really if they're going to be making this I really hope that they catch and recreate all of the little social commentaries and lunacy caught in the anime. For a small example there is the religious following that starts to gather in the backgrounds here and there, and it grows throughout the movie and then there is a scene where a bridge gets taken out and the "priest" that apparently was asking for rapture is starting to slide down the collapsing bridge. Put it this way, he was no longer looking for the end, struggling in vain to hold on. To hold on to the man made structure that was failing in the face of such awesome power. A power he begged to be a part of. Iirc a tank smashed him on the way down. This is just one tiny piece and the anime is filled to the brim with these.

Wow all sorts of imagery from this film is now starting to flood in...

Americanizing movies is just annoying. Have seen several of original vs americanizing. Korean movie shutter, extremely scary and cool, american version removed the tension and added a random sex scene in the middle that had nothing to do with the plot. Swedish movie let me in, again just terrible remake. I imagine the new girl with the dragon tattoo movie couldn't possible keep the same amount of gore or explictness as the original.

Honestly, *why* do they keep doing this with films? Has Hollywood seriously run out of ideas that they have to just nick films that were fine as they are?

ALso, I know many Anime fans might disagree, but Akira isn't really "user friendly". I remember watching the film and thinking "This is a bit convoluted...". The average cinema goer into big action flicks etc, might not get the original manga's message, and I am worried they will do the proverbial "dumbing down" of the script in order to cater to the audience.

With all honesty though, its going to be a travesty as it is, but PLEASE, in the name of all that is Holy, DON'T let "M. Shite Shyamalan" anywhere near it...please?

When given the choice between selling a film to 1000 diehard anime fans or selling to 1 million kids who follow the latest fad it's really not a very difficult choice for the film producer is it..?

And if there's an original film then why do you even care? Keep watching the original. It's not like they're going to just delete the original one from existence are they?

"I am still going to watch it" says it all really. If you're still going to buy a ticket to see it then the film producer is laughing. You are not meant to buy a shit product when you know that it's shit. I don't buy a justin bieber CD and then complain how the supermarket sells such terrible music. It just makes no sense. If i bought it then I must at least partially like it, why else would I spend my money on it?

Ugh, 4KIDS was probably one of the bigger ***** when it came to "Americanising" animes. Need I remind you One Piece (of CRAP)? God that was horrible. That's what made one of the best manga/animes in the world least liked by US, because people will always watch tv in their own language rather than read. =(

I guess because White Americans have been catered to and put on such a pedestal as the "Paragons of Humanity" and "The Only Believable Fantasy Heroes" for so long, that movie execs think WA's are so mentally simplistic that they can't fully enjoy a movie starring a heroic non-white person. Unless they adhere to certian stereotypes. Now before some idiot knee-jerks, I'm not saying I believe this or don't believe this about WA's, as that wasn't my point. I'm mainly referring to block headed execs.

(edit: Why does humanity keep appearing twice, when I only type it once?)

When subjected to any sort of narrative scrutiny, Akira falls flat. Hard. Worse than The Cell as a movie trying very hard to be interpreted instead of letting the interpretive elements of its story flow organically. It's mediocre at best, subbed or dubbed. (Great animation though.)

There's not much for Hollywood to screw up. At worst, the Hollywood version will be similarly bad, though anime fanboys will claim it's significantly worse than the wildly overrated source material. At best, it will be way better, though anime fanboys will again claim the overrated original is gold.

Also, the reason The Last Airbender was a bad movie wasn't the race of its actors. It was a bad movie because it was a good ol' fashioned badly written, directed, and produced movie. Cast race has little to do with it.

Cool guys quote themselves.

Originally Posted by Firebane

It's gona be so bad if they go through with this, I can feel it in my bones.

I don't blame them for it. I know niche movies don't sell. Doesn't make it any less disappointing from an artistic perspective. I prefer to see directors making the movies they want, instead of making the movies they think people want to see.

I can't remember anything about Akira that would require censoring to receive a fairly tame R rating. I think there was maybe a bit of nudity? The violence certainly isn't anything unheard of in today's cinema. If it's anything like I remember, the live-action version will probably end up on FX several times a year.

To be fair, Akira was kind of a stupid movie to begin with. I mean, I enjoyed it, but I expect that parts of it will not make the transition to film and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

---------- Post added 2011-11-14 at 08:06 PM ----------

Originally Posted by pocky_rin

Americanizing movies is just annoying. Have seen several of original vs americanizing. Korean movie shutter, extremely scary and cool, american version removed the tension and added a random sex scene in the middle that had nothing to do with the plot. Swedish movie let me in, again just terrible remake. I imagine the new girl with the dragon tattoo movie couldn't possible keep the same amount of gore or explictness as the original.

I didn't much care for the original Shutter (and I never saw the American version). Let Me In, however, was as fine a conversion as the Swedish film was -- that is to say, they both left out some pretty major plot elements (the "girl's" father being a straight-up pedophile and getting turned into an undead (vampire bite + dead person = zombie vampire) and the fact that the "girl" is actually a castrated boy). And I've heard that the new Dragon is supposed to be pretty intense

Anime's a huge part of Japanese culture, and Akira's one of the most highly regarded. Not interesting to you =/= bad.

I love Akira, but this is the bs why people get pissed at Anime fans, because they act like it's some diety among the Japanese that the unwashed Americans are going to bastardize. You all seem to conviently forget that the creators of Akira had to lease out the rights for Hollywood to make an adaptation. This isn't a case of Americans going "Derp, lets rip off Japan!" This is a case of Japan selling out America.

And your last statement "Not interesting to you =/= bad." applies to you as well. Don't find the Akira remake interesting? Don't watch it.

Just don't act like America is devouring the soul of your precious Japan, because that's not the case, Japan is selling their soul to us American devils.

Originally Posted by Masark

People in cars cause accidents. Accidents in cars cause people.

Sometimes life gives you lemons, other times life gives you boobies. Life is always better with more boobies.
Blizzard removed my subscription from WoD's features, it'll be added sometime later.
And thus I give you: MALE contraception!